JOHN GRAY: Jungian Based & Transpersonal Counsellor

Can Jungian counselling and dream work help me?

There are no areas of human suffering that Jungian based analysis cannot address. The following is a short list of just a few of the issues that we can work with.

Addiction

Family

Trans-gender

Adoption

Sexual and Emotional Abuse

Depression/Anxiety

Relationship

General dissatisfaction with life

Lack of Meaning & Purpose and/or Direction

We live in a society that is so complex

It seems to demand performance, perfection and measurable success. The type of success calculated in terms of wealth, possessions and successful relationships. It demands fitting in with family, social sphere and working life. So it comes as no surprise that mostly we feel ‘okay’ when all these things are working well.

But what if one of these fails? What if you are one of an increasing number of folks who have not ‘succeeded’ in one or more of these areas of life? What if you are unable to live up to the perceived demands of the world, society and the demands you place on yourself?

Over time, you may become beset by emotions, harsh inner voices and the judgments of others. You may feel ashamed, guilty. You may find yourself caught in a web of troubles – self-loathing and depression, relationships and life patterns that feel like Groundhog Day. Perhaps you struggle with obsessional and/or unhelpful behavioural patterns, substance abuse or addictions to alcohol, sex or food; destructive relationship patterns. Or you may simply feel disconnected from life; perhaps a gnawing, constant feeling of dissatisfaction with the world you live in and how you live in it. You may have been told that you “ill” in some way. You’ve received a pronouncement from an “expert” that you are a “….”. You can fill in the blanks.

But, what if this pathologizing of symptoms of simply isn’t true? What if these issues are actually symptoms of something awakening within your soul, psyche or unconscious? What if the symptoms are actual a symbolic manifestation of a “complex” or pattern within the unconscious that is demanding expression? What if these symptoms are actually a part of myself that I’ve repressed?

What if the answers are within you?

Dr Carl Jung said, (and I paraphrase) “Here’s the thing … the unconscious really IS unconscious!” Sounds obvious but it is another way of saying that what we need to bring to a conscious knowing, is not available to us in our normal waking lives. It is repressed, it has been made unconscious. But it has a powerful effect upon our lives … it brings in situations, people, choice of career, physical symptoms, to name but few of these effects.

You may well ask, “For what purpose?” The answer is both simple and complex; to bring the person to “wholeness”; in other words, to facilitate the person to be able to be ALL of who and what they are, CONSCIOUSLY. In other words, one starts to become one’s true self and lives accordingly.

If this “true self” is largely unconscious, how to I make it conscious?

After many years of searching and struggling with similar thoughts, it was suggested to me to read the work of Carl Jung. In the course of his work, Dr Jung came to see that the answers to our perceived “problems” and “neuroses” are within each of us, and that for him, and subsequently many others, the way to access the answers is by working with our DREAMS. What are perceived, as our problems are actually our psyche or unconscious trying to help us discover who we really are; what it means to be truly ourselves and how to live in the world as ONESELF.

This journey is completely “personal”. While one or more methods of counselling may be used, how it plays out is entirely centered on the individual. In other words, the inner self is the guide. My task as your counsellor is to guide and facilitate you on the journey of self discovery.